Portland-revisited

My recent purchase of another Rick-Rack(T-56) has spurred me to share a photo of it and it's predecessor , the open face Portland Hotaling(T-55). Sorry about the quality of the photo, but this old shack has exactly two windowsills, both of which have colored glass in them.

A.P. Hotaling opened the Portland, OR, Agency around 1873, and expanded rapidly in the Northwest area. Shortly after he opened offices in Seattle, W.T., as well as Spokane(Falls)W.T.
It is generally accepted that the first bottle Hotaling used in his endeavors in the Portland area was the T-55, or Open Face Portland fifth. This bottle was probably used to promote his wildly successful J.H.Cutter Whiskey, but could also have been filled with his other big names up there, Monongahela White Rye and Our Choice Whiskies. The Rick-Rack came into use in the late 1870s, supplanting the earlier bottle as Hotaling's container of choice for his products. Hotaling remained in Portland until 1894, at which time he sold his interests to the Rothchild Brothers.

Hotaling also used the more familiar bottles such as the A No 1(T-40), OK(T-41), "Bird"(T-42) and the various molds of the Circle cutter(T-44s), throughout the regions where he had outlets and agencies. It is likely that the earlier of these often seen bottles were used conjunctively with the ones that were blown specially for A.P. Hotaling's Northwest Agencies.

Portland Hotaling (Rick Rack)

In the 35 plus years I have chased Oregon glass (Hey, someone has to!), I have had an opportunity to examine, and own some very beautiful whiskey fifths, and flasks. Oregon has comparitively few early whiskies than California, and all are very scarce to rare. One particularly beautiful fifth to me at least is the Portland Hotaling "rick rack". These bottles were produced in the early 1880s, and are a great reminder of making one's mark in the marketplace. This bottle comes complete with crossed swords, a large crown, and that unique zig zag design around the full face embossing. There are two versions of this bottle, one with bold, and thick embossing, commonly called the earlier variant ( T-56) these come by and large in the same medium amber coloration, and skinny applied glob top. I have not seen this unique lipping treatment on any other fifth, and the charactaristics, as well as the consistency in color of these scarce bottles, indicate extreme quality control in their manufacture. These fifths have been dug in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. I am not aware of an example being dug in California, but would be interested to know if this is true. One version that you do not see very often is the "light rick rack". This variant is extremely rare with maybe 6 known in any condition ( T-57). Since John Thomas's first book on whiskies, this was considered a later bottle (1884-90). I have doubts about this. I have never seen a tooled top example as claimed in the book (have you?), also this bottle is much more tradional in profile, lip treatment, and extreme crudity to indicate it is actually earlier than the more commonly seen rick rack. Interesting that the heavily embossed version is much more common with perhaps 30 or so known, and more elaborate, and widely distributed. Why change the mold, top, and embossing to a much less fancy bottle when the one type was selling so well? Why so rare? I have compared the T-57 with many T- 56s and the T-57 blows it away in every aesthetic area except detail of embossing. To find a T-57 with a strong strike is super tough, since there are not a bunch to go around as it is. If you are fortunate enough to own one of each, compare them, and see which one looks more like an early whiskey to you!